The Humane Society of Northeast Georgia is working to move dogs to emergency foster families as the shelter continues to deal with pipe-related water damages.
The shelter’s pipes burst on Saturday and the water damage continued into Sunday.
“Christmas Day, things got much worse,” HSNGA Chief Development Officer Sam Threadgill said. “The plumbers actually came out to investigate the situation. And so what's happening now is [that] ceilings are actively collapsing, even today. And it's just continually happening in every different space over and over again.”
The shelter shared the need for foster families on Sunday and Threadgill said they received a lot of interest from the community. As of Tuesday afternoon, about 20 dogs have been taken to foster families, but at least 100 animals remain.
“We now realize that we need to get every animal out of the building, if possible,” Threadgill said, “or at least the dogs because those are the areas that are hurt the most. Our dogs are actually outside in our pinned in areas in crates right now just to keep them safe.”
The damages mostly impacted kennels in the large dog adoption area, so the shelter cats have not been as impacted. However, water damage is unpredictable.
“Our surgery center, the ceiling in there just collapsed about an hour ago,” Threadgill said. “Thankfully, we had moved the equipment out of there like probably 20 minutes prior. And yeah, so they're happening all over the building. We can't really control it or figure out where it's going to happen before it happens.”
Interested individuals or families can text 470-628-0665 to become an emergency foster.
“Foster, even if it's just for a few days,” Threadgill said. “Whatever we can take, we'll take it so the animals are not in here in case more ceilings collapse.”
The shelter is also accepting financial or item donations. You can view the shelter's wishlist here and you can make a financial donation here. Some examples if the shelter's wishlist items are towels, blankets and Kuranda beds. The shelter also needs drinking water for the animals since its water is not working.
“We're having to go to the [Quiktrip] down the street and fill water buckets up,” Threadgill said. “So if people would like to give, bring water or donate for that kind of stuff, they can absolutely make a donation as well.”
The shelter primarily relies on donations. HSNGA has filed an insurance claim to determine how much damage was done, and Threadgill anticipates a sizable cost.
The only other time the shelter has had to evacuate its animals was a few years ago after an A/C unit blew up.
“We've been pretty lucky with a building that's this old, and we know that this building is our biggest hindrance,” Threadgill said. “And we're looking to change that in the next couple of years. I think there's water problems going on all over the city all over the state right now. So I know people can understand the pain that we're in.”
